Summit cuts field for voting machines

AKRON - The Summit County Board of Elections will use either Diebold Inc. or ES&S to supply the electronic voting machines required to be in place by the November elections.

A committee of election workers studied the four suppliers certified by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's office and narrowed the field to two. A third, Sequoia Voting Systems, was ruled out because its software was incompatible with what already is in place at the office; a fourth, Hart InterCivic, was ruled out because its machines had more problematic parts.

The board, which was required to make a decision by Jan. 15, refused to narrow the choice to one, as many other counties have done. The machines that end up in Summit will be determined by Blackwell's office.

Sixteen counties have chosen Green-based Diebold. Portage County chose Hart. In some counties, such as Mahoning, machines from one of the four companies already were in use.